You Saved My Dogs Life, Thank You | Benny’s Story

What would you do if something/someone you loved so much came close to death?

I tell you what I did, I sobbed, panicked, worried, contemplated.

On the 22nd December 2017 (3 days before Christmas, supposedly the happiest time of year) my dog, Benny was hit by a car.

He was inches close to death.

How he is alive, we do not know, but before I go into detail, Benny survived and the reason why he survived is because I think he had so much fight, he didn’t want to loose this battle. He wanted more cuddles and love from his owners, and more importantly, he had more squirrels and birds to chase.

Oh, Benny.

Where do I start. This crazy fluff ball came into our lives on the 15th September 2016. He came bouncing into our arms, and before we considered what we were getting ourselves into, we said yes before anyone else could pick him up. And that, was that, handed over the money and whisked him home.

He certainly became part of the furniture and settled in really, really well.

Benny has always been a boisterous Cocker Spaniel, bounds of energy and when I say playful, I’m not sure that term cuts it. He loves chasing around fields and runs around in circles, playing with balls and frisbees and he always comes back (9 times out of 10). His re-call is good, and is improving as he gets older and wiser.

But on this day, nothing was getting him back to me.

On that Friday evening, I took him to an enclosed playing field (the one he goes to all the time). It was pitch black and we started playing with this flashy ball I recently bought.

It lasted 2 minutes before something wasn’t right.

He stopped and stood still for 20 seconds and before I could put him on the lead he started to bark, running towards something. At first, I thought it was a cat, but it was too big to be a cat, then I realised it was a fox.

I knew there and then, this wasn’t going to end well. The field we go to, although is fenced off, is close to a dual carriageway and shops etc and I just knew something bad was going to happen.

It was then he escaped from the field running with this fox and I lost him, out of my sight, under the dual carriageway. I couldn’t do anything except stand there screaming and wait. Wait for something to happen, wait for him to stop.

I was on my own screaming at my phone trying to get hold of my boyfriend, but his phone was going to answer message so I just stood there and cried, my heart was racing, I thought I was going to faint.

When I eventually got hold of Jordan, he ran down from our place to meet me at the field and we saw cars piling up on the dual carriageway.

It was then, I knew.

I knew he’d been hit. I thought I had lost my dog, my best friend, everything to me, that night.

The police officer confirmed Benny had been hit, and a kind lady who was 4 cars behind (who happened to be training as a vet) picked him up and walked to Pets At Home (which has a vets inside) which was the luckiest thing to have happened.

If it wasn’t for that kind lady, and if it wasn’t for the staff at Pets At Home that night who stabilised him, then I’m not sure I’d be writing this post with the same ending.

We saw him being brought in by this lady, and thanked her so much before she went on her way, and sat there waiting for the staff at Pets At Home to give us the news. The vet couldn’t give a full account of his injuries and they only did initial scans and stabilised him with meds, but they said they have phoned the RVC in Potters Bar and they were expecting us.

We drove him there, with Jordan’s Mum and Dad as well and waited for the outcome after he was rushed to ER.

They did an assessment on him and firstly could tell us they could see some fluid internally that were concerned about and that he has a collapsed lung, but they said they were going to to do more tests the next day, but they didnt seem too concerned.

The next day they phoned us to say his injuries were a lot worse than they thought. He not only had a severe broken back at the bottom but he also had a broken neck.

They wanted to do surgery on the lower back as that was the worse break, but they said the were expecting this surgery alone to come between £7-10K!!!!!

We just broke down. We didn’t know what to do. We checked the insurance we had and although we had insurance, it only covered up to £2,000 per accident and this was just a massive one so wouldn’t pay out any more! The vet gave us 10 minutes to decide whether we wanted them to go ahead with the first operation.

We had 10 minutes to decide whether we let our 18month old dog live or die.

We literally broke down.

I phoned my mum for advise, but in reality, it was only Jordan and I that could decide. He is our responsibility.

Despite the complications, and the risks during surgery, we decided to go ahead because they said he had every chance it would go to plan and he could walk again as he had feeling in his legs before the surgery.

Only problem is we didn’t have £10k to pay for it so we had to think of how we were going to manage this.

I remember putting a tweet out to say my dog needs surgery but it was going to cost £10k, and I had so many people say to start a gofundme page and they were sure people would help out.

I thought, no way. I would never expect people to donate to my dog who needed this surgery. I never ask for money, and I just sat there for 2 hours thinking what do I do.

After so many messages from my followers advising to do it, I just went ahead and set one up.

I set one up because even if we raised £100 it would be a massive help to such a big vet bill.

It went mad, so many people were sharing my tweet, retweeting, quoting it, replying to me and really getting the message out there. Before I knew it, kind, kind people had already raised over £100.

I was truly gobsmacked!!!!

I couldn’t believe it. It was 2 days before Christmas, yet people’s hearts were with us, and the amount of kindness and generosity that was going around, made me so overwhelmed.

People I knew, friends and family of people I know, people I didn’t even know were donating.

my dog really had captured the hearts of so many at such a giving time of year, and within 3 days, yes 3 DAYS!!!!! the £3,000 we needed to help pay for his life-saving operation had been raised.

I am writing this post to say thank you, thank you from deep within my heart. I wish I could individually thank each and everyone of you who supported us but I hope this post will suffice.

You truly did save my little pup, without you I don’t know how we would have paid.

So where are we now?

Benny is at home (thankfully) it’s been over 2 weeks since his operation, and they are hoping his neck break will heal naturally so we won’t have to pay out more.

His recovery is slow and steady but every day we are seeing an improvement. His back legs are weak and the muscle has wasted away, but with support and love he is on the mend. We hope in 8 weeks or so he will have almost full movement and will be back walking as normal.

The RVC did an amazing job, their expertise and knowledge were second to none, and we can’t thank them enough for keeping Benny alive.

Here’s to a speedy recovery little man, you captured the hearts of many and will continue to do so I’m sure.

18 Comments

Oh Bex you have me tearful just like I was when I heard about Benny! I’m soooooooooooo so happy that he pulled through and is now on the mend, seeing his little face on your Instagram story instantly puts a smile on my face! Bless his big floppy ears you have to give him a big cuddle from me!

I am so so so glad that he is okay! I cannot even imagine how I would have felt in that situation (I have two wonderful dogs of my own), and reading this post and its happy ending really made my day. Sending so much positive and healing energy to you all! xx

Completely welled up reading this and can’t imagine what you are going through! I am so glad he is back home and fingers crossed he makes a full recovery. He is such a beautiful dog and with 3 in my parents house they are totally part of the family. Get well soon Benny xx

Oh my gosh I didn’t realise you were on your own with Benny when he ran after the fox. I would’ve been exactly the same! I’m so, so pleased it’s all turned out so well and hope Benny makes a full recovery, getting back to running around again soon. His story touched a lot of hearts. Get well soon Benny xx

Oh Bex, I can’t even imagine how you must have felt when it was happening, like slow motion I bet. I’m so glad Benny is on the mend. He’s such a lovely dog and I know he’ll be back to his usual self in no time! X